From your earlier research, you learned that collaboration is one of the important skills that 21st Century students will need to master. Many of you already have students collaborate in your classrooms. But that's only one kind of collaboration. In this lesson, we'll look at some other tools that allow students to collaborate with the world or just with others when they are not in school. These tools have a bit of a down side in that there might be some temptation to change the work of others or that students may want to use these tools outside of school. Students introduced to this tool in one of our classrooms began using the tools as messages to each other. That's why you should be walking around the classroom when kids know about these. But just as we can't control what they do when they get home, we need to look at the advantages and disadvantages and weigh in on them. We can't control what they text or say on AIM or email; we can only be aware of what they can do at school.
Blogs and wikis are great collaboration tools you already know about. We talked about Kidblog for the younger set and Blogger and others such as Edublogger for blogging for older students. Sue Waters is an expert on blogging and has quite a few tips on her space here. She does use Edublogger but you can transfer her ideas to any blogging situation. Sometimes people ask about differences between blogs and wikis. Generally blogs are used more for personal reflection and newest posts are always on top. Wikis are often used to build something together--maybe a history textbook or all the class knows about. Wikis become collaborative if you only want one person to edit at a time or if you make a page for each person in the class to work on.
What Sue Waters is to blogs, Cool Cat Teacher is to wikis.Here is a link to her blog about wikis and how she uses them in her classroom.
You might also set up a group project on a site called Wiggio. What I like about it is that it is made for academic sharing (designed for college students expressly) but a teacher can set up a group, send them internal emails using the Wiggo built-in email but get any traffic that students generate emailed to them. Students can work together on making a report, for example, and if one person is absent, it doesn't matter. You can take a poll using this tool as well. As administrator, you control what students can and cannot do with the tools. You can add sticky notes, voice notes, invite people to a meeting, upload files to the group's folder and many other things. Watch the video. You might set up groups to work together on a project here.
In a completely different vein, students can collaborate as authors using Mixbook. Mixbook has added features for educators that preserve privacy for students and allow a book to be jointly created after the teacher sets it up. Pretty cool stuff for books that are created by groups. Here's an example of a Mixbook.
This is from a third grade class this past year. These can exist only on the web or can be purchased. You can also use Tikatok for the same purpose.
Seen demos of "clickers"? If you have laptops as part of your teaching, you can use a tool that will also allow you to poll your audience anytime, anywhere. View the movie and see how to set up your questions. You would need to be prepared with them ahead of time but your audience can respond quickly. It is called Poll Anywhere
The next tool is WallWisher.
I created a test one for you to try at this spot. I think it would be perfect for asking an exit question at the end of class or asking kids to post a short synopsis of something they have read. Once a note has been added, it cannot be changed or deleted by another person although the person who created or owns the wall could do that if they register. Or you could use it for class announcements. Many of you are more creative than I and I look forward to ideas you might have about how you could use this. Here's a link to how a collaborative document about WallWisher. Here's a Wallwisher wall that has ideas about how to use Wallwisher. Here's still another way a person used this. He put a shout out (asks) on Twitter and people from all over added their favorite Web 2.0 tool. One could spend days here.These are for use by students studying English.
And for those of you who are primary teachers, a new one for Primary Students has been created. It is called Primary Wall.
It does not require a log in to create. The writing is designed for primary age students. I could see posting a Riddle of the Day and having children answer it by creating their answer on a note. See what you think.
Another sort of collaboration tool, one that uses video, is Skype. It must be downloaded to your computer and you will want to set your privacy setting carefully. And it starts up automatically in your computer by default so you will have to have someone help you keep that from happening. Before getting to the How-To part, take a look at this blog with links to ideas you may want to explore. The middle division had a very successful Skype session with an auth or. This is a terrific resource to find authors who are available for that. Here is another very recent article about using it. Here's a how-to guide for setting it up. Here's a video tutorial.Your Berkeley Login name is usually good to go for Skype. Here are some resourcesfor that. And part of collaborating online is making Global Connections.b Skype has made it easy for educators to connect with people from around the world. Released in April 2011, you can use it to find others who might be interested in Skyping with you. And this is a very neat use for Skype. I see lots of possibilities for this in geography studies or maybe for the National Parks in third grade.
Any post about collaboration would be incomplete without talking about Google Docs, Adobe Buzzword, and Windows Live. You can use your GMail account to access Google Docs. In fact, if you look up at the left hand side of your Gmail page, you will see a link that says Documents. I often use this to work on something on one computer or to send a larger file or picture to myself since the latest version of Outlook really doesn't like pictures as attachments. You can upload any Word, PowerPoint or Excel Document by browsing to it after clicking the upload button. These documents can be shared with others by adding their email addresses. Here is a webinar I attended about Google docs. You all have Windows Live Accounts next year and we will most likely be doing workshops on those.
A tool that you might want to try is Collaborize Classroom. It promises to always be free. I like tools like this as opposed to Blackboard or some other platform that the school may change. If I were a laptop teacher in lower division, I might want to try this.
1 point for exploring (remember, you don't have to do everything--just look at what might interest you)
1 point for contributing something to the collaborations I set up for you
From your earlier research, you learned that collaboration is one of the important skills that 21st Century students will need to master. Many of you already have students collaborate in your classrooms. But that's only one kind of collaboration. In this lesson, we'll look at some other tools that allow students to collaborate with the world or just with others when they are not in school. These tools have a bit of a down side in that there might be some temptation to change the work of others or that students may want to use these tools outside of school. Students introduced to this tool in one of our classrooms began using the tools as messages to each other. That's why you should be walking around the classroom when kids know about these. But just as we can't control what they do when they get home, we need to look at the advantages and disadvantages and weigh in on them. We can't control what they text or say on AIM or email; we can only be aware of what they can do at school.
Blogs and wikis are great collaboration tools you already know about. We talked about Kidblog for the younger set and Blogger and others such as Edublogger for blogging for older students. Sue Waters is an expert on blogging and has quite a few tips on her space here. She does use Edublogger but you can transfer her ideas to any blogging situation. Sometimes people ask about differences between blogs and wikis. Generally blogs are used more for personal reflection and newest posts are always on top. Wikis are often used to build something together--maybe a history textbook or all the class knows about. Wikis become collaborative if you only want one person to edit at a time or if you make a page for each person in the class to work on.
What Sue Waters is to blogs, Cool Cat Teacher is to wikis.Here is a link to her blog about wikis and how she uses them in her classroom.
You might also set up a group project on a site called Wiggio. What I like about it is that it is made for academic sharing (designed for college students expressly) but a teacher can set up a group, send them internal emails using the Wiggo built-in email but get any traffic that students generate emailed to them. Students can work together on making a report, for example, and if one person is absent, it doesn't matter. You can take a poll using this tool as well. As administrator, you control what students can and cannot do with the tools. You can add sticky notes, voice notes, invite people to a meeting, upload files to the group's folder and many other things. Watch the video. You might set up groups to work together on a project here.
In a completely different vein, students can collaborate as authors using Mixbook. Mixbook has added features for educators that preserve privacy for students and allow a book to be jointly created after the teacher sets it up. Pretty cool stuff for books that are created by groups. Here's an example of a Mixbook.
.
| View Sample Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book
This is from a third grade class this past year. These can exist only on the web or can be purchased. You can also use Tikatok for the same purpose.
Seen demos of "clickers"? If you have laptops as part of your teaching, you can use a tool that will also allow you to poll your audience anytime, anywhere. View the movie and see how to set up your questions. You would need to be prepared with them ahead of time but your audience can respond quickly. It is called Poll Anywhere
The next tool is WallWisher.
I created a test one for you to try at this spot. I think it would be perfect for asking an exit question at the end of class or asking kids to post a short synopsis of something they have read. Once a note has been added, it cannot be changed or deleted by another person although the person who created or owns the wall could do that if they register. Or you could use it for class announcements. Many of you are more creative than I and I look forward to ideas you might have about how you could use this. Here's a link to how a collaborative document about WallWisher. Here's a Wallwisher wall that has ideas about how to use Wallwisher. Here's still another way a person used this. He put a shout out (asks) on Twitter and people from all over added their favorite Web 2.0 tool. One could spend days here.These are for use by students studying English.
And for those of you who are primary teachers, a new one for Primary Students has been created. It is called Primary Wall.
It does not require a log in to create. The writing is designed for primary age students. I could see posting a Riddle of the Day and having children answer it by creating their answer on a note. See what you think.
Another sort of collaboration tool, one that uses video, is Skype. It must be downloaded to your computer and you will want to set your privacy setting carefully. And it starts up automatically in your computer by default so you will have to have someone help you keep that from happening. Before getting to the How-To part, take a look at this blog with links to ideas you may want to explore. The middle division had a very successful Skype session with an auth or. This is a terrific resource to find authors who are available for that. Here is another very recent article about using it. Here's a how-to guide for setting it up. Here's a video tutorial.Your Berkeley Login name is usually good to go for Skype. Here are some resourcesfor that. And part of collaborating online is making Global Connections.b Skype has made it easy for educators to connect with people from around the world. Released in April 2011, you can use it to find others who might be interested in Skyping with you. And this is a very neat use for Skype. I see lots of possibilities for this in geography studies or maybe for the National Parks in third grade.
Someone else has made a "Live Binder" that includes many ways to Connect Globally including Virtual Trips and all sorts of other resources.
Any post about collaboration would be incomplete without talking about Google Docs, Adobe Buzzword, and Windows Live. You can use your GMail account to access Google Docs. In fact, if you look up at the left hand side of your Gmail page, you will see a link that says Documents. I often use this to work on something on one computer or to send a larger file or picture to myself since the latest version of Outlook really doesn't like pictures as attachments. You can upload any Word, PowerPoint or Excel Document by browsing to it after clicking the upload button. These documents can be shared with others by adding their email addresses. Here is a webinar I attended about Google docs. You all have Windows Live Accounts next year and we will most likely be doing workshops on those.
A tool that you might want to try is Collaborize Classroom. It promises to always be free. I like tools like this as opposed to Blackboard or some other platform that the school may change. If I were a laptop teacher in lower division, I might want to try this.
1 point for exploring (remember, you don't have to do everything--just look at what might interest you)
1 point for contributing something to the collaborations I set up for you
1 point for your blog
Til next time.